1. The world seem to be condemning Israel for the inhuman attack against Gaza. But as usual the world does nothing. Why not? Because Israel is backed by the United States of America.

2. The world should also condemn the United States. The planes and the bombs are all made in America. If they are lost the US will replace them. And the US will finance Israel so as to continue its bestiality.

3. For as long as the US backs Israel, we will continue to see Israel ignoring world opinion as it murders the Palestinians Arabs, and destroys their towns and cities.

4. When I said Israel rules the world by proxy, the American media and Government condemned me. But it is a fact that only those candidates approved by Israel can win elections in America. So much for democracy in the United States. Lets see the stand of the United States' new President.

5. Incidentally we should also realise that we are, in a small way, helping Israel. Israeli persimmons (pisang kaki) are sold in supermarkets in Kuala Lumpur.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on December 29, 2008 10:13 AM

1. I came home from Yemen on Thursday, Dec 25th. It was Christmas Day and offices were closed. I was tired and appreciated the holiday. I was too tired to visit Christian friends even. I merely wished them Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, via my blog.

2. The next day I went to work. Kuala Lumpur was quite empty. Then I realised that many, including Government servants had decided to take Friday off, so that they could have a really long holiday because Saturday and Sunday would be weekends and as a bonus Monday would also be a holiday being the 1st of the Muslim New Year. Five days holiday. We can go round the world in that time.

3. But after Monday holiday, workers in the public and private sectors can take time off for two days until Jan 1st when we will have another holiday. If we are smart we can actually have eight days holiday. Time to fly two times round the world.

4. What about work? Not to worry. During that time the Government and the private companies will be on automatic. Aircraft can fly on auto-pilot safely. We are on the ground. We will not crash.

5. It shows that we really don't need a Government. It will just coast along even if no one is steering it. That is how good we have become at governing.

6. I am sorry for the poor policemen and other staff who have to be on duty during the holidays.7. Have a nice holiday - or is it "holidays".

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on December 26, 2008 4:47 PM

1. Every day we hear, we read and we watch on television reports about acts of terrorism somewhere. No place seems to be free from terrorism.

2. From Indonesia to New York, suicide bombers, airplanes, cars and vans loaded with explosives are being blown up, killing people and destroying buildings almost with impunity.

3. Security measures have been taken, using sophisticated and costly methods, specially trained anti-terror squads, electronic detectors and tedious body searches, including scrutiny of shoes, hand bags and luggage. But the terror attacks have gone unabated. We seem to have to live with this danger striking where we least expect with no end in sight.

4. Great thinkers, journalists, political analysts and politicians of all shades and colour have written at length and given their reasons and their analysis of these acts of terror, why people should be willing to blow themselves up frequently killing innocent people.

5. The analysts and writers have attributed such acts as being due to the teachings of the Prophet of Islam, as the tendencies of Muslims to be violent, as the expressions of the clash of civilisation, as the jealousies against people who are better off themselves. They blame the extremism of the Wahabi sect of Islam and the hatred of leaders of the sect such as Osama bin Laden.

6. Based on their analysis they prescribed measures to curb terrorist activities, arresting suspected, subjecting them to torture and humiliation.

7. But still the acts of terror have gone on and show signs of escalating. Muslim airline passengers are made to go through humiliating searches, detained for hours. Hundreds of so-called terrorist suspects have been detained without trial for years, often humiliated and tortured with no means of seeking redress.

8. But through all these the real reason for these violent acts of terror has been deliberately ignored. It is as if the Europeans and the Americans are in a state of denial. It is as if all the European and American leaders fear to state the truth. Their media too appear to conspire to avoid mentioning the true cause of the anger and frustration of the people who commit these acts of terror.

9. Yet if we pause to think we cannot help but notice that these acts began with the forceful seizure of the land of the Palestinian Arabs in order to create the formerly non-existent state of Israel; the expulsion of the Arab Palestinians from their homes and their country, the killings of the Arabs by Zionist terrorists, and the incarceration of the Arab Palestinians in makeshift refugee camps for the last 60 years or so.

10. This is the basic and original cause of the acts of terror. Initially the neighbouring Arab countries tried to regain Palestinian land through conventional war. But Israel with the help of America and Britain defeated the forces of Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

11. Not only were they defeated but Israel grabbed more Arab land. At each attempt to regain Palestinian land, Israel together with America and Britain seized more Arab land.

12. In the area of Palestine which the Israelis have not seized, Jewish settlements were set up. Roads were built on Arab land which the Arab Palestinians are not allowed to use. High walls are built to break up Arab villages, preventing the villagers from contacting their close relatives even.

13. In the meanwhile the world watched the expulsion of Arab Palestinian and their plight with little concern and less sympathy.

14. Against the powerful Israeli forces the Palestinians could do nothing. They have no guns or tanks or fighter planes. Angry and frustrated they tried guerrilla war. But this was to no avail.

15. Eventually they resorted to what is referred to as terror attacks. Not having delivery vehicles they made use of suicide bombers, blowing themselves up.

16. Instead of resolving the Palestinian issue the Americans and the British decided to attack other Muslim countries. Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded, and Syria and Iran are threatened. Naturally this did not help solve the Palestinian issue. It simply aggravated the problem. And now other Muslim people, knowing that there can be no solution by their Government have adopted the same terror tactics as the Palestinians.

17. I was in Syria recently to attend a conference on the "Right of Return" of the Palestinian people I was also in Iran and Yemen. Everywhere I went I found among the ordinary people anger and hatred directed at the Jews, the Americans and the British. Their Governments are terrified by the British and the Americans. But their people are more and more bitter. There will be many who would be willing to blow themselves up even if they will not succeed in liberating their countries.

18. Terror attacks will not diminish for as long as the Palestinians are forced to remain as refugees, are denied the right of return.

19. America will have a new President soon. If the membership of his Cabinet and his staff are anything to go by, there is little that Obama can do, even if he wants to solve the Palestinian problem. All American Presidents and legislators are hostages of Israel. Fail to side with Israel and they will be defeated at the next elections.

20. "Terrorism" is going to be a part of the world scene for a very, very long time.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on December 19, 2008 3:57 PM

1. I have always been for privatisation. In fact privatisation started during my time. People know all about the Government companies, departments and functions which were privatised. Some were successful, some were not. But I don't think people know about privatisation proposals which had been rejected. I know about them because the proposals were studied carefully before they were rejected. There were reasons of course but there was no necessity to make public the rejections or the reasons.

2. With regard to the Institut Jantung Negara, I must say I have a personal attachment to it. I don't think I need to explain why. The IJN is really the institution that is physically closest to my heart.

3. IJN is a unique institution. It started as a Government department but the Government felt that it was unfair to put the staff on Government pay scheme. So it was corporatised. As a corporate body it has been successful in giving the people good service. It is one institution that has not been subjected to criticisms and vilifications by the press or the public as most other institutions have been. We often hear of its many "firsts" and we are proud of them.

4. The doctors and nurses are very well trained and efficient. During the 50 days I was hospitalised there I never heard them complain about their salary or how they have been treated. They seem to me to be a happy lot. They are not mercenary, thinking only of their pay. I think they love their work; they love to see their patients recover and go back to normal, especially their transplant patients.

5. The service they provide is excellent. People usually complain about their personal grouses to me. But not a single patient, rich or poor that I have met has voiced complaints to me or to the people I know about their bad experience with IJN.

6. Maybe I am biased because I owe my life to IJN. But I think as a corporatised institution the IJN has done extremely well.

7. If it is going to give the same service to civil servants and pensioners the Government will have to pay out the same amount of money after privatisation. How does the Government gain? Besides if the poor are going to be charged the same low fees and charges how does Sime Darby make money? Or will the Government continue to subsidise an ever growing bill for treatment of the poor? If so why is there a need to privatise? How does Sime Darby, a business entity make money when 80 per cent of the patients are poor?

8. Some of the major surgeries performed there are so costly that the IJN lost money on them. Will Sime Darby shoulder these losses?

9. There are far too many questions about this privatisation which need to be answered. Some I think cannot be answered.

10. I seldom oppose privatisation but this is one instant when I feel privatisation is the wrong thing to do.

11. Leave this institution as it is. It is our pride and it is doing a good job as it is.

12. The Barisan Nasional Government is not too popular today. Why do something that may give the opposition another issue to belabour the Government.

3. Dalam New Straits Times (Mac 24, 1993) pula dilaporkan: "In Butterworth, UMNO Vice-President and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the royal assent has helped close the chapter on the subject which he described as a milestone in the process of political maturity of the nation.

4. "One lesson to be learnt from the whole episode is that the issue was not entirely confined to the abolition of the Malay Rulers legal immunity in their personal capacity.

5. "It concerns the understanding and maturity of all quarters involved with regard to the real meaning of freedom and the rule of law".

6. Lain padang lain belalang.

The No Bridge Decision

1. The Star reports on the traffic congestion at the new Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex in Johore Bahru. Most of the congestion was caused by traffic from Singapore entering Malaysia.

2. At the risk of boring visitors to my blog, may I point out that the idea of a bridge to replace the causeway, connected to the CIQ building by an elevated highway was in order to avoid the traffic congestion. Replacing the elevated highway with a road at ground level must cause a clash between traffic to end from Singapore and the Johore Bahru east / west traffic.

3. The problem can only get worse as more and more cars will take to the road in future.

4. But we must endure these jams because we must not annoy our neighbour.

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on December 15, 2008 4:34 PM

1. Today's Starbiz reports that 50 billion US dollars of investor's money were lost by just one man.

2. Bernard Madoff invested US5000 of his money to set up an investment firm. Such was his personality and sales talk that he was able to convince lots of rich people to invest their money with him. The returns were so good that his fund became exclusive, open to select people only.

3. When he was arrested recently by the FBI he admitted that "There is no innocent explanation".

4. We got on to Pak Man Telo ponzi scheme quite early. He caused the naïve Malaysian who invested in his scheme several millions, I believe.

5. Apparently the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of America did not detect Madoff's operation for years. He was even made Chairman of Nasdaq Stock Market.

6. He was living a high life, with a 5 million dollar mansion in Manhattan and membership of the most exclusive clubs.

7. Pak Man Telo would probably have done better if he had gone to New York where he would not have the Malaysian Government overseeing such activities. Or perhaps the SEC might learn some lessons from Malaysia as indeed the US Government has learnt about bailing out companies.

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on December 10, 2008 2:13 PM

1. I was in Langkawi the day before Raya Haji and had a busy time looking at my projects.

2. The horse breeding is doing well with three foals sired by Albarik, a pure Arab. The foals are also doing well. We expect more this year.

3. We are looking for an Arab mare so that we will produce pure Arab foals by Albarik.

4. The local boatyard is making good progress with my fibreglass catamaran. I ordered the boat partly to give the yard a chance to build something it had not tried before, partly to use the boat for catching squids. It is the squid season in Langkawi and at night you can see hundreds of boats with their powerful spotlights forming a semi-circle in the sea. The squids get attracted to the lights and it is easy to catch several pounds of squids with a hooked line or net.

5. I was saddened to see quite mature teak and mahogany trees being chopped down to widen the road north to Ayer Hangat.

6. My friend had tried to bring in a foreign wood carver to Langkawi to start a new cottage industry. It seems that our immigration policy does not allow anyone above 50-years to come and work in Malaysia. What a pity. Our skilled engineers, pilots, architects etc can go out but skilled foreigners cannot come in. On the other hand unskilled labourers may come in legally or illegally.

7. The net result is that our brains are being drained out, no brains are coming in but the brainless may come in and even settle in our country. You can figure out the end results. I hope the Government realises this and maybe design a new immigration policy.

8. Then my friends took me to the most interesting new industry in Langkawi. It is the production of mozzarella cheese, the cheese used in making pizza.

9. Mozzarella is an Italian cheese and the small facility is owned and operated by an Italian who's married to a Malaysian. He also operates a butchery where the cows are slaughtered and the meat is properly and professionally cut by a young Langkawi person who had been trained in Italy (actually in San Marino, an independent state in Italy).

10. I tasted freshly made mozzarella and it was delicious. Mozzarella is made with buffalo milk and the little "factory" is next to a Government project to breed buffaloes.

11. One day I hope this Langkawi mozzarella factory will become a tourist attraction, and the world will eat Langkawi mozzarella in their pizzas.

12. Telaga Harbour in the Northwest of Langkawi is full of yachts, including mega yachts. People say the marina reminds them of the Mediterranean, with Italian, Spanish, and Russian restaurants as well as a Chinese steam-boat restaurant. You can sit at a table on the harbour front and watch the yachts (some 130 of them) in the protected harbour.

13. There is a plan by someone to put some kind of floating platform in the marina for performances to be held.It is a great idea but the turning circle for yachts in the marina is small. The platform, I am afraid, will get in the way for big boats. However, I have no say in this matter.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on December 4, 2008 5:48 PM

1. When Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that he would be stepping down in March 2009 he said he needed the extra three months to complete certain missions he had set out to do.

2. These initiatives, he said, are needed "to regain the country's competitiveness, to face the challenges that the world has in store for us".

3. Among the initiatives are the reform of the judiciary, the setting up of an Anti-Corruption Commission, Special Complaints Commission, equitable distribution of the fruits of growth, strengthening and enlarging the social safety net, development of corridor initiatives etc etc.

4. It is now December 2008. So far we have seen no progress at all in any of these glorious initiatives. Instead the Prime Minister is busy visiting foreign countries with his family in the beatiful, big and new Airbus A320.

5. After announcing that there is no money to build the second Penang Bridge, the contract was signed during the PM's China visit to build the bridge after all. There is a lot of money involved here.

6. In Uzbekistan, Petronas is to invest a few hundred million Ringgit. Trips are also scheduled for Iran and Turkmenistan. No doubt more contracts and more money would be involved. Some contractors will benefit.

7. After failing to implement any of the promises made in the 2004 or 2008 elections, it looks like nothing is being done either with regards to the promise to carry out a variety of so-called reforms as mentioned in the press statement on why the PM would step down in March 2009 - three months after the scheduled UMNO General Assembly.

8. But the visits to foreign countries to sign contracts which were not mentioned in the statement are being assiduously carried out.

9. I wonder why.

10. On the political front Abdullah has been busy campaigning for his chosen candidates for the posts of Deputy President, Wanita chief and Pemuda chief and other posts which will lead to appointments as Ministers.

11. Najib is going to be surrounded by Abdullah's people and through these people Abdullah will control the Government of Najib.

12. Najib has already abandoned Muhyiddin, the fierce critic of Abdullah. He does not want to incur the displeasure of his boss. Would he refuse to appoint Abdullah's nominees? Would he dare go against them?

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on December 3, 2008 3:48 PM

1. UMNO has now sacked Zaid Ibrahim from the party.

2. This is the man who was held in high esteem by UMNO President Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi so that from among hundreds of UMNO leaders of sorts, he chose Zaid Ibrahim, a dubious character who could not be accepted even by his own Kota Bahru division and was not made a candidate in the 2008 Election. It is known that Zaid was in Perth, Australia during the elections.

3. Seeing Zaid's behaviour toward UMNO lately, the rumours that he was supporting the opposition against the UMNO/Barisan Nasional candidate in the March 2008 Elections must have been true.

4. Now Zaid has left his benefactor with controversial issues which can only undermine the support for UMNO / Barisan Nasional whatever his benefactor may try to do. And Najib will inherit these headaches when he takes over.

Monday, November 17, 2008

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on November 17, 2008 9:15 AM

1. When the Barisan Nasional did badly in the March 2008 General Election, foreign observers and many in this country were jubilant because they claim that it marked the demise of racial politics and racial parties in Malaysia.

2. I did not agree with this simplistic view and I had put my thoughts on this blog. I believed that it was rather protest against the failures of the Abdullah Government that caused many Barisan Nasional members and supporters to vote for the opposition. But many still insist that race based politics is no longer relevant in Malaysia. Is it?

3. If it is because the Malaysian electorate had rejected racial politics, why did they vote for such parties as PAS, a very Malay Muslim party, and DAP, a Chinese dominated party. Even the Keadilan is made up of violently racist Hindraf Indians, Chinese dissatisfied with the MCA's representation of the Chinese in BN and self-serving Malays who could not find a place in the other Malay parties.

4. These three parties did not campaign for human rights or open Governments or even against the Internal Security Act. PAS had made no secret of their Islamic State pretensions. DAP talked of Malaysian Malaysia which was the battle cry of its very Chinese PAP antecedents of Singapore (no non-Chinese PM) and Keadilan talked about reforms etc., but the stress was on Hindu Rights and anti-Malay racism.

5. Their accredtied supporters who may really subscribe to their creeds had never been big enough to make them strong opposition parties in the past. They were never able to deny the BN a 2/3rd majority. It should be remembered that Keadilan won only one seat in the 2004 elections. The other two, DAP and PAS did not do much better either.

6. It was the defection by the BN party members which resulted in the opposition parties, regardless of the quality of their candidate getting the large number of votes to win so many more seats than they or anybody else expected.

7. Apart from the voters supporting the essentially race based opposition parties, the claim that it was the rejection of racial politics which led to the poor results by the BN has also not been borne out by the attitudes and debates by Malaysians post 2008 elections.

8. What we are witnessing today is an explosion of racial politics that is more bitter and blatant than ever before. Even the least observant cannot fail to notice how Malaysian politics now is more about racial inequities than about liberalism, human rights, openness etc.

9. True there has been quite a lot of discussion on the ISA. But most of the angry and bitter discussion is about Malay "privileges", about the Social Contract, about the Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister being Malays, about UMNO bullying, about being or not being immigrants, about Malay dominance. Even the criticisms regarding the way judges are appointed or promoted have elements of race that is hardly disguised.

10. Truly Malaysian politics have not been decoupled from racial sentiments and loyalties. And it is going to remain so for as long as the different races prefer to be separated and divided, prefer to strongly uphold their languages, cultures and their historical origins and links. All that is said about reforms and liberalism is mere lip service.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on November 11, 2008 8:08 AM

Going through some old documents I came across this record of a speech by the Honourable Minister of Finance, Enche (sic) Tan Siew Sin, at the Delegates' Conference of the Hokkien Association of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on 22nd May 1965.

It is too long a speech to be reproduced in full. I will therefore cite only the parts that seem to be relevant to the current debates in Malaysia. I would be happy to provide the full text if needed.

Siew Sin remarked that the British identified the Chinese as a whole unjustly with the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army which was controlled by the Communists. The Emergency of 1948-1960 generated even greater suspicion against the Chinese community because the movement was directed by the Communists who were largely Chinese.

"This fear," Siew Sin said, "led the British to a policy of restricting citizenship rights for the Chinese as they felt that it would be dangerous for too many of them to become citizens....The result was that only about 200,000 Chinese had managed to become citizens out of a total of more than two million then resident in the former Federation of Malaya".

Farsighted Statesmanship

"When negotiating the terms of independence before that date," Siew Sin continued, "the MCA had asked that every Chinese who could legitimately claim to be regarded as a citizen should be allowed to become a citizen with the achievement of independence. It is a tribute to the farsighted statesmanship of UMNO and its leaders that they reacted sympathetically to this request. To give effect to this sympathy, a provision was inserted in the constitution itself to the effect that "good character" meant any person who had not been in jail during the period of three years preceding his application for citizenship.

"This was the main stumbling block to the acquisition of citizenship in colonial days. With the removal of this barrier, it was possible to admit approximately one million new citizens within 12 months of Merdeka and, of this number, roughly 800,000 were Chinese. If the Malays had been against giving a fair deal to the Chinese in the matter of citizenship, they would not have allowed such a situation to develop.

"The next major issue was the one concerning the special position of the Malays. Not many people are aware that this provision was inserted in the 1948 Federation of Malaya Agreement as part of the special responsibilities of the High Commissioner in the following terms;

"The safeguarding of the special position of the Malays and of the legitimate interests of other communities.

"It will be seen that this simple phrase could mean nothing. It could also mean everything. It was vague, it was also comprehensive and it was comprehensive enough as to be capable of being interpreted in a way which could mean the virtual elimination of Chinese economic interests in important sectors of the economy. Here again, with independence, this omnibus provision was scaled down to a precise definition so that it will be clear to all what this provision means. You will find it in article 153 of the Constitution. I have no time in a speech of this nature to tell you exactly what it means or what it does not mean, but very briefly, the effect of this provision is that, firstly, all existing rights are preserved; secondly, no citizen can be prohibited from engaging in business activity or deprived of his right to engage in business activity merely because he is a non-Malay."

Chinese Education

"In the field of Chinese education, a matter which is dear to the hearts of the majority of the Chinese population of this country, and one on which they feel very strongly, I do not have to remind that Chinese education today has the kind of status which could not have been possible in the days before independence. In 1954, which was the year before the Federation's first general election, when the alliance came to power for the first time the amount spent on Chinese education was $11.7 million. The amount spent on education as a whole was $99.9 million. In 1963, and I have taken 1963 because after this year we would be dealing in pan-Malaysian figures, and therefore the comparison would not be fair, the figures were $44.6 million and $283 million respectively.

"In other words while the amount spent on education as a whole increased by 183.28 per cent in nine years, the amount spent on Chinese education increased by 281.19 per cent. In brief, Chinese education has fared even better than education as a whole since independence, and education as a whole has been the principal beneficiary of independence.

"It will, therefore, be seen that in three major areas, that is, in the field of citizenship, Malay rights, and Chinese education, the Chinese are actually in a much happier position today than they were in the days of colonial rule. I have taken some pains to trace the history of these matters because i have heard, not only in this country, but overseas, that the Chinese were better off under British rule than they were in the former Federation of Malaya or in Malaysia today. I could give other instances, but the three major ones I have given will serve to show how unfounded such a belief is."

Sunday, November 9, 2008

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on November 8, 2008 3:58 PM

PAYOUT FOR JUDGES

1. Now we know how much has been paid out to the judges.

2. It is not bad at all. The Government must have plenty of money to give away for something that the Government says is not an admission of guilt and does not merit an apology. This generous act is unprecedented but must now be taken as a precedence. We should see more money being doled out every time a Minister feels a need to be popular with the Opposition. I wonder whether the amount of ex-gratia is based on how much the ex-de facto Minister of Justice considers would please the Bar Council.

3. The Minister informs us that the judges had been drawing full pension for the last 20 years. The highest pension is RM6,548.59 per month. Roughly this adds up to RM1,600,000 for 20 years.

4. Judges in Malaysia are paid two pensions - one at 55 years and one at 65 years. As I pointed out before one judge actually draws three pensions. Is the sum mentioned the total or just one?

5. Assuming that the highest pension is paid to the most senior of the judges, then he would have done extremely well to get RM5,000,000.00 (Five million Ringgit). He would have to draw pension for another 60 years to get RM5 million. Truly the Government is generous.

6. Were the judges sacked or suspended? I think they were sacked. The records say so. Now the Minister says "No", the judges were not sacked or suspended.

7. Why pay them compensation if they are not sacked or suspended and they did not even lose their pension rights?

8. Were they allowed to continue being judges, to preside over cases brought before them? I cannot remember them doing this.

Friday, November 7, 2008

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on November 7, 2008 3:26 PM

FORMER SECRETARY-GENERAL ACQUITTED

1. Can I say how glad I am that Datuk Dr Abdul Aziz Muhammad has been acquitted of the charge of abetment in committing criminal breach of trust (CBT) and of cheating involving RM9 million.

2. I remember how shocked I was that this senior civil servant whom I know very well should have been found guilty of CBT etc. I knew him as a good officer who was conscientous when doing his work. I also remember the Minister involved telling me how profitable was the "koi" breeding and orchid ventures. But suddenly there was this accusation against Aziz. Apparently the ventures were not profitable at all. I wonder why!

3. I am sorry for the sufferings Aziz went through. Miscarriages of justice do happen and we must not blame anyone. I hope and pray that there will not be too many miscarriages. The talks of unseen political hands are not to be taken seriously.

ECONOMIC HEADLINES

I wonder whether Government leaders see anything significant in these headlines in today's (Nov 7th) The Star;

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on November 6, 2008 5:41 PM

1. I would like to add my congratulations to the millions that Barack Obama must have received for his great victory for the Presidency of the United States of America.

2. Only a few years ago I thought it was impossible for a black man to become President of white United States, the country where the blacks used to be the slaves of the whites.

3. But attitudes have certainly changed radically among the white people. Their support for Obama is overwhelming.

4. There are many reasons why Obama managed to break through white prejudice. But President Bush has contributed much towards the acceptance of black Obama.

5. The Presidency of George Bush Junior must go down in American history as the worse ever. Arrogant, narrow-minded, autocratic, inconsiderate and totally uncaring for the views of others and even of his own countrymen, Bush created a demand for change as no other US President had ever created.

6. There was a lot about wanting to have Obama come in but there was more about wanting to have Bush and his ilk out. And McCain as the Republican candidate simply increased the desire of the Americans to have nothing to do with anyone even remotely identified with Bush.

7. Obama made such a contrast from Bush that the voters must have felt they were voting against Bush as much as for Obama.

8. But Obama is also unfortunate. To be different from Bush in attitude and foreign policy is not going to be too difficult. But Obama is coming in at a time when the US and the World are experiencing the worst of economic and financial crises. While he might succeed in changing foreign policy he is not likely to be able to solve the economic and financial crises, not in the near future certainly.

9. Bail-outs are not going to work. We have seen that already. Even partial or complete nationalization of banks and other financial institutions will not really help in turning things around.

10. Obama will be hard put to find a solution. He has five years. If he fails it is not going to be good for the new President. Certainly it will not be good for the first black President.

11. The world will be watching. It is easier to say change than to actually change.

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on November 6, 2008 2:37 PM

RAYA OPEN HOUSE

1. I would like to share with all the visitors to my blog my open house experience this raya.

2. All are heart warming and belies the popular belief that the races in Malaysia are antagonistic towards each other. From the large number of Chinese and Indians attending the raya open houses, I think most people are wrong aout how they dislike or even hated the Malays.

3. My sister-in-law Saleha number many Chinese and Indians among her family friends. On Saturday October 4th she held her open house just as she had done every year since...I don't know when.

4. What struck me was the friendliness and love they all showed her. She knew them all and the women often give her a kiss on the cheeks. Some of her non-Malay friends I had seen during her previous open house and when they visited her at the hospital. The friendship is clearly very sincere, some of which started when they were very young.

5. The same afternoon I attended an open house hosted by Encik Rizatuddin for residents of Cyberjaya. Again there were many Chinese and Indian friends. I enjoyed the Chinese Koey Teow and gladly posed for snaps with almost everyone of the guests.

6. October 5th was my open house. I had announced on my blog I would be holding the open house at my house at the Mines. I had also informed the Press and issued a notice in my Facebook page. I anticipated a big crowd and wondered if I could stand for hours greeting my guests as in the past.

7. At 10am there was already a small crowd of people lining up under the tents heading to the main big tents where we had ordered food for 10,000 guests.

8. It was hot but my visitors seemed not to mind. They came in droves, wishing us Selamat Hari Raya. There were so many of them that the ushers had to disallow picture taking.

9. I remember during my early open houses the Chinese and Indian children and sometimes their parents did not know how to "salam". They would stretch out their left hand and would wish us Happy New Year, even Happy Birthday!

10. But nowadays parents of the little children had coached them to say "Selamat Hari Raya" and to stretch out the right hand to salam. Many adults and children now place their right hand over their hearts after shaking hands with me. The Malay form of greeting has become Malaysian. When my wife and I attend Chinese New Year open house and Indian Deepavali open house we make the appropriate Chinese or Indian greetings. We would wear red shirts and dresses for the Chinese New Year. I don't know whether this kind of joint celebrations take place in other countries or not.

11. Another thing I noticed was the large number of Chinese women wearing beautiful kebaya and sarong. They had obviously gone to the trouble of buying a new Malay dress for the Raya. They all greeted me and Hasmah with a perfect "Selamat Hari Raya". Some said other nice things to us. They really made our day.

12. Despite all the talks about racial antagonism in this country, I believe there is still substantial reservoir of goodwill between the races.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on November 1, 2008 9:05 AM

INTERVIEW

1. I was interviewed by the BBC on the current financial turmoil and over management of the currency crisis in 1997 - 98.

2. I was amused when he attributed the pegging and the elimination of CLOB (Central Limit Order Book) to Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim. I asked him whether he was given this information by Anwar. He did not answer.

3. Of course I did not do everything by myself. I had a lot of help from others. But Anwar was not one of them. He, many will remember, was the Minister of Finance who implemented the IMF strategy without the IMF with disastrous results.

COMMENTS

1. When I started my blog I expected many criticisms to be levelled at me when I wrote articles against the Government.

2. I am disappointed that those who made critical comments never argued their cases against me. All they could say is that I was worse when I was Prime Minister or that all the problems began during my time. No supporting evidence at all. And obviously not even true.

3. Clearly the quality of these carping commentors leaves much to be desired.

RUBBISH

1. We are great producers of rubbish - not the verbal kind, although that also - but real solid waste. But we are not keen on their disposal.

2. Rubbish dumps, legal and illegal are everywhere. Land fills which seem to be the preferred method are really hazardous to health. When rain falls and leaches the waste, the water would seep into the ground and pollute ground water. This water flows into the land around and may get into the water supply. At least New Water in Singapore is thoroughly filtered and rendered safe though not aesthetically acceptable. But our ground water is not filtered and can poison the soil and ourstreams and rivers.

3. The Government had wanted to build a modern incinerator like the ones in Japan. These Japanese incinerators are located in the residential area. They produce hardly any smoke from their very tall chimneys. The incinerator is so clean that the locals use them as their recreation area. I have never heard of the Japanese complaining against incinerators being located in their residential areas.

4. But we in Malaysia have higher standards of cleanliness. We do not want even the cleanest incinerators to be located anywhere near where we live. We prefer to dump the rubbish untreated on land. Soon we will be having rubbish mountains like in a neighbouring country where scavengers can recover discarded items which can be washed and sold to the not so rich.

5. Incidentally I am told that in the United Kingdom every household has to have three rubbish bins; one each for plastics, glass and perishables. If the rubbish inspectors finds that there is nothing in the bins the householder will be fined for throwing his rubbish elsewhere. Will we accept sorting our rubbish and dumping them into the correct bin! I think not. That is for the Government to do, as we pay taxes precisely for sorting our rubbish.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on October 28, 2008 8:07 AM

LITIGATION

1. Malaysian politicians seem to be resorting to litigation in order to gag their critics and detractors.

2. When I was PM and Anwar Ibrahim was being tried, he sued me for 100 million Ringgit for some statements that I made. I had to find lawyers to take up my case. Fortunately I won. Otherwise I would have been bankrupted.

3. When the press asked me about Anwar's acquittal I pointed out that though the two judges in the Appeals Court cleared Anwar on the basis that the complainant was not a reliable witness and that the "event" did not take place on the date as reported in the charge, but they still said they believed that Anwar did indulge in sodomy.

4. Of course the third judge concluded that Anwar was indeed guilty of sodomy.

5. The press reported my answer. Following that Anwar sued me again for 100 million Ringgit and again I had to employ lawyers to defend me.

6. It is now three years since the suit and I don't know whether it is sub-judice or not but I am scared to talk about it. Effectively the suit has gagged me. It is no different from being censored by the Government.

7. If eventually the court decides that I am not guilty I suppose I am entitled to be compensated for the cost incurred. But I don't think I would be paid.

8. On the other hand if I lose I would be made a bankrupt.

9. The amount that the litigants sue for is usually extremely big, running into one hundred million even. The litigant knows the person he sues would not be able to pay. But that doesn't matter. It would deter him and others too from exposing his (litigant's) misdeeds in the future.

10. I get a feeling that the court is being made use of by these politicians to hide their misdeeds and to prevent them from being made political issues.

11. I feel sure we will be seeing more suits by politicians in the future.

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at www.chedet.com on October 27, 2008 10:26 AM

My wife and I wish all our Indian friends, especially readers of chedet.com and my Facebook fans a very Happy Deepavali.

I hope Malaysians of all races will use this joyous occasion to visit their friends of the Hindu faith with visitations to open houses.

This will help strengthen and further promote harmonious relations between us Malaysians of various races in the spirit of Deepavali, the festival of lights that signifies the triumph of good over evil.